South Korea's foreign ministry is seeking to hire around 400 new employees as part of its efforts to ease the mounting workload and provide better consular services, government sources said Tuesday.
In a recently submitted request for staff increase, the ministry demanded a total of 218 more employees. This is around a 10 percent increase compared to its incumbent staff of 2,200, according to the sources.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Yonhap)
Separately, the ministry is seeking to hire around 180 new workers to be assigned to overseas missions where they will support consular affairs.
The planned increase is aimed mostly at easing the mounting workload on its employees and meeting growing demand for the safety of Korean nationals residing or traveling overseas.
"The plan was recently submitted to the Ministry of the Interior," a source told Yonhap News Agency. "It is not final but subject to changes in the process of a months-long review by relevant ministries."
In particular, the ministry is to assign around 40 workers to an organization to be launched as a "control tower" that will supervise affairs related to the safety of overseas residents.
The move comes amid growing demand for better consular service and safety from an increasing number of South Koreans going overseas.
Government data showed that about 20 million South Korean people travel overseas every year, with Korean nationals staying in other countries totaling some 7 million.
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha earlier emphasized the need to increase the absolute number of employees at the ministry as part of efforts to ease the heavy workload on her staff. (Yonhap)